An increasing number of automobiles are now offered with night visions systems designed to enhance driver visibility in low light environments. Briefly, such night vision systems include an IR light source mounted on the automobile and a compatible IR detector or camera configured to detect IR light waves reflected from objects in front of the automobile. The emitted and reflected IR energy, while invisible to the unaided human eye, is detectable by an IR camera tuned to the frequency of the emitted IR energy. The IR camera can output a video signal to a display, such as a head-up display, to provide an enhanced view of the approaching environment to the driver. Older night vision systems operated with far-IR or mid-IR light sources, while newer active night vision system operate with near-IR light sources. Near-IR light sources or illuminators include, for example, IR laser diodes, filtered incandescent light sources, or the like.
Near-IR illuminators have a beam pattern similar to that of a high beam automotive headlamp and, therefore, must be aligned to ensure proper operation of the night vision system. Such alignment can be time consuming and costly (requiring special alignment equipment) in traditional deployments where the IR illuminators are mounted to the vehicle bumpers, grill, or other locations at the front of the vehicle. Furthermore, bumper-mounted IR illuminators can introduce styling concerns, may be susceptible to damage caused by road debris, and, due to their relatively low mounting position, may not provide an optimized IR beam pattern for enhanced pedestrian detection distances.
The automotive prior art is replete with various headlamp assemblies, modules, capsules, and systems. Automotive assembly plants utilize headlamp aiming equipment to properly align the low beam and/or high beam headlamp elements. It would be desirable to leverage existing headlamp aiming equipment for use in the alignment of IR illuminators—such use would eliminate the need for customized aiming systems designed specifically for IR illuminators.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a headlamp assembly (e.g., a headlamp capsule) that includes an integrated IR source, where the IR source can be aligned with conventional headlamp aiming equipment. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.